A week after top cops of Northern states devised a joint strategy to take coordinated action on the drugs mafia, a senior officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday said that assistance will be sought from US-based security agencies to check narco-terrorism.

Gyaneshwar Singh, the NCB deputy director general (DDG) of the northern region, admitted that dropping narcotics through drones has emerged as the biggest challenge to checking narco-terrorism in the western International Border.

Singh, who is the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the federal anti-narcotics agency, said that they are seeking assistance from some US-based agencies to frustrate evil designs of the drug mafia.

Narcotics Control Bureau
Narcotics Control BureauSocial media

"Drone is a big challenge in the Western International Border. Recently a joint meeting of Border Security Force (BSF), Punjab Police, Jammu and Kashmir Police, Rajasthan Police, and Narcotics Control Bureau was held to discuss the prevailing situation", he said.

He further informed that threadbare discussions were held to devise a fresh strategy to foil designs of drug mafia sitting across the border which is smuggling narcotics through drones.

"On the demand of some agencies, assistance was sought from US-based agencies namely Marine Air Wing and Home Land Security to face the challenge of dropping drugs through drones", he said.

Burning drugs
Cops of Punjab Police burning narcoticsPunjab Police

Over 300 kg seized drugs destroyed in Samba district of J&K

Earlier, over 300 kilograms of seized narcotic substances were destroyed in Samba district on Tuesday by the Narcotics Control Bureau's Jammu zonal unit. The drugs, which included 153 kgs of heroin and 177 kgs of charas, were destroyed in an incinerator at Rakh Rara village, the official said.

Last year, NCB Jammu destroyed 154.56 kgs of charas, 1175.5 grams of poppy straw, 32,204 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup, and 33,160 Spasmoproxyvon capsules, the official said.

"By acting against the drug traffickers, the NCB and other enforcement agencies not only put a spanner on drug trading but also stopped the flow of drugs through the state to other parts of the country," the official said.

The disposal of these narcotics drugs including four cases of heroin has been carried out on the same day by the High-Level Drug Disposal Committee (HLDDC) constituted by the Director General, NCB, New Delhi headed by Gyaneshwar Singh, having members as Zonal Director, NCB Jammu & Deputy Director, DRI Jammu and by the Regular Drug Disposal Committee ( RDDC) in (05 cases of charas) headed by Zonal Director, NCB Jammu with members from DRI and ANTF Jammu.

North India's top cops decide form panel for curbing drug menace

Last week, senior police officials of northern states and Union territories decided to form a specialworking group so that field officials can regularly share information and take efforts against the drug problem in a coordinated way.

The officials held a detailed discussion on the menace of drugs in the meeting hosted by Chandigarh police and laid emphasis on coordinated action to deal with it. The meeting was attended by officials from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, besides the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and chief director controller Chandigarh. Haryana director general of police P K Agrawal, Chandigarh DGP Praveer Ranjan and Punjab's additional director general of police (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla were among those present in the meeting.

Discussions were held on the drug menace in the region and the various strategies to control it. During the meeting, deliberations on source of drugs and psychotropic substances, the routes etc were held and strategies to combat it were discussed.